An underperforming California school district is dishing out nearly $300,000 to partner with a group to teach a rap-based curriculum to students, sparking “troubling” concerns, the Justice Department said. 

The Merced City School District, one of the state’s lower-performing school districts, has signed a $270,000 contract with School Yard Rap, the New York Post reported. 

 The agreement includes a summer “Rap Camp” and an “African American Affinity Group,” which has raised questions about whether the partnership complies with federal law. 

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Lessons include history lessons, songwriting, DJ-ing and performances.

“The School Yard Rap curriculum transforms history lessons into relatable characters presented through songs and storytelling- resulting in emotional connection,” the School Yard Rap website states. 

Established in 2016, School Yard Rap, which operates in 28 states, presents “a world where learning meets rhythm, exploring diverse cultures and subjects through interactive music-infused modules.”

Merced has handed out $610,000 worth of contracts to School Yard Rap, the Post reported. Fox News Digital has reached out to the school district and School Yard Rap. 

The Justice Department told Fox News Digital that any race-based programming is “troubling.”

“It is illegal for the government to offer benefits solely on the basis of race. We have not had the opportunity to investigate these allegations, but if true, they are troubling,” Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, told Fox News Digital. 

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Brandon Brown, a former school teacher and founder of School Yard Rap, told the newspaper that the programming wasn’t exclusionary.

“This camp specifically — the African American Affinity Camp — is open to every single student grades 3rd to 8th, focusing on African American history and the diaspora,” he said. “I think this is politically driven and the reason this is being called out.”

However, one of School Yard Rap’s programs, titled “Moor than a Month” features song lyrics mimicking those by hip-hop group Migos, which talks about white patriarchy.

“I’mma be Black every day that I’m here, no cap, for more than a month, just like every Black kid in class,” the song said.

“So this album for them, but this track’s for you — every teacher and parent, you need this truth,” one line states. “History books have a white male skew, but believe me I ain’t blaming you. That’s who wrote it on paper — it’s a cycle by nature.”

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The school district serves 11,400 students but has a student-teacher ratio of 25 to 1, according to Niche, a website that compiles data to rank and review schools. Only 13% of the students meet math-proficiency benchmarks, the report states. 

The Justice Department has launched probes recently into other school districts for alleged race-based programs and hiring practices. In April 2025, it began looking into Chicago Public Schools’ Black Student Success Plan over alleged race-based benefits. 

England has recovered from drought after four months of above average rainfall, but officials are concerned about future dry spells.

A wetter-than-normal February saw England receive 170% of the long-term average rainfall, the Environment Agency said.

A regular government-led meeting of water stakeholders noted that while wetter than normal months had been positive for water supplies, they had “caused devastating flooding” in many areas.

The South West recorded the second-highest December to February winter rainfall since records began in 1871.

On Monday, East Anglia became the final area to move back to a “normal” water level status.

The Environment Agency said the risk of drought in 2026 was now low, but there was still the possibility of “flash drought”, caused by a sudden combination of very low rainfall and high temperatures – conditions seen in summer 2022.

However, officials warned that the country will see increased “weather whiplash”, with rapid swings from droughts to floods as a consequence of climate change.

March has been drier than normal, only receiving 53% of the long-term average rainfall for the month so far.

Reservoir storage is now at 95% in England, slightly above average for the time of year, although some reservoirs in Essex, Cambridgeshire and Derbyshire are still below average, officials said.

The announcements follows the latest meeting of the National Drought Group of the Met Office, government, regulators, water companies, the National Farmers’ Union, Canal and River Trust, anglers, hydrologists and conservation experts.

Much of England entered drought last year after the driest spring for 132 years, and a summer which saw record temperatures and multiple heatwaves.

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Water Minister Emma Hardy said that “we must still talk about drought” – despite recent wet weather.

Water companies are finalising their statutory drought plans, which are produced every five years and detail how water supplies will be protected during dry weather.

EXCLUSIVE: A key lawmaker charged with oversight of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) believes President Donald Trump’s new plan addressing the partial Department of Homeland Security shutdown will reduce hours-long airport delays nationwide.

“I think it will help and it’ll speed up the process greatly,” Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., chair of the House Homeland Security Committee’s subcommittee on transportation, told Fox News Digital.

“Right now, we’re losing TSA agents not only due to sickness, but some of them are actually getting up, you know, basically saying, ‘That’s it, I’ve had enough. Every six months I’ve got to put up with this stuff.’ And they say, ‘This is not for me.’ We need to stop this.”

Trump announced Sunday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents would be deployed to airports across the country to help ease travel chaos brought on by the ongoing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown, which is now in its 37th day.

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“On Monday, ICE will be going to airports to help our wonderful TSA Agents who have stayed on the job despite the fact that the Radical Left Democrats, who are only focused on protecting hard line criminals who have entered our Country illegally, are endangering the USA by holding back the money that was long ago agreed to with signed and sealed contracts, and all,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. 

He followed it with another post Monday calling on ICE agents working at airports to do so without wearing face coverings. Masks have been a point of fierce contention in DHS funding talks, with Democrats demanding that they conduct immigration enforcement operations without them while Republicans insist they are critical to agents’ safety.

“I started out in the private sector. And in the private sector, the customer is always right. …The U.S. citizen is our customer, and so we can’t allow them to go through these long waits because we have less and less TSA agents,” Gimenez said.

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“In light of the fact that the Democrats will not do the right thing and fund DHS, then I think you have to do what you have to do. And if their plan is to use ICE agents in order to supplant and speed up the lines at the airports, I’m fine with that.”

Tens of thousands of TSA agents have been forced to work without pay for weeks as the shutdown draws on with no end in sight. It’s led to hours-long delays at airports in Houston, New Jersey, New York, and Louisiana, among other major hubs.

While they’re guaranteed to get back pay when the shutdown is over, the current lack of regular paychecks has forced scores of agents to call out sick and find other means of making ends meet.

Democrats have balked at Trump’s plan given ICE’s controversial tactics on immigration in the past. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., for example, called it “unacceptable morally, legally, politically” in a statement on X.

But Gimenez pointed out that DHS, and therefore ICE, will be under new leadership soon, with Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., poised to replace Kristi Noem as Cabinet secretary. 

He also said he was “heartened” about ICE’s direction after a recent conversation with border czar Tom Homan.

“I think you’re going to see a different emphasis by ICE when they are helping TSA agents,” Gimenez said. “If [Democrats] are worried about ICE agents now at TSA facilities, why don’t you just fund DHS and then you don’t have to worry about having ICE agents at TSA facilities?”

The government was plunged into a partial shutdown earlier this year after Democrats walked away en masse from a bipartisan deal to fund DHS in protest of Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis and other parts of the country. They’ve insisted on stricter guardrails on federal agents conducting immigration enforcement, several of which the GOP has dismissed as non-starters.

The president himself later threw a wrench into negotiations for a new deal, urging Republicans to reject any plan until Democrats pass an unrelated election integrity bill called the SAVE America Act.

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Republicans have also rejected Democrats’ demand to fund all of DHS excluding agencies responsible for immigration enforcement.

Unlike last year’s full government shutdown, the longest in U.S. history, the current shutdown solely affects DHS — a wide-ranging department that includes a variety of agencies including ICE, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the TSA, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

An Oregon man is back in police custody after threatening to “kill the president” in a slew of text messages to his probation officer.

Diedrich Holgate, 47, was convicted and sentenced last July after making threats on social media and placing several direct calls to the U.S. Secret Service Washington Field Office, threatening to kill then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and then-President Joe Biden.

In a June 2024 call to the Secret Service, Holgate said, “I have the right to kill the president.”

“I will kill everyone,” Holgate said, according to the federal indictment. “The president is going to die. I don’t care if it is Trump or Biden. I will hang everyone for treason.”

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Two months later, Holgate called the field office again, threatening to “hang his a** for treason” and saying that no one was safe from him, including the First Lady and Supreme Court justices.

Holgate was released from custody on January 21 and was ordered to live in a halfway house.

Just weeks after being released from prison, Holgate’s probation officer filed a petition to revoke his probation for several violations, including continued death threats toward the president.

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“Holgate has made multiple threatening statements via text message to his probation officer,” the petition alleged. “Probable cause has been established that a violation of supervised release has been committed.”

Holgate sent his probation officer several text messages that included “Trump’s gonna fkn pardon me or I’ll kill him!!!!”

“You’re with me or You’re a traitor & infidel that’s taken the Mark of the beast. & Hell? That won’t last forever. Second death. You’ll be erased,” Holgate wrote in another message to his probation officer.

A magistrate judge ruled in a preliminary hearing that there was probable cause to believe Holgate violated the conditions of his release. In addition to making threats, Holgate failed to report to a meeting with his probation officer and left the halfway house. He also violated house rules by smoking a vape.

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Holgate will remain in custody until his next hearing is scheduled on March 26.

He was previously convicted in 2018 for sending threatening voicemails to two Texas judges in Travis County.

Justice Samuel Alito emphasized the literal meaning of the word “day” as the Supreme Court heard arguments Monday about whether states can legally accept late-arriving ballots that are postmarked by Election Day.

“We have lots of phrases that involve two words, the last of which, the second of which is ‘day,’ Labor Day, Memorial Day, George Washington’s birthday, Independence Day, birthday and Election Day, and they’re all particular days,” Alito, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, said.

Alito added, “If we start with that, if I have nothing more to look at than the phrase ‘Election Day,’ I think this is the day in which everything is going to take place, or almost everything.”

The justice’s remarks came after the Republican National Committee sued over a Mississippi law that allows mail ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted if they are received five days after that day. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit sided with the RNC in the case in 2024, leading Mississippi to ask the Supreme Court to weigh in.

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Alito was among multiple conservative justices on Monday who appeared skeptical of Mississippi’s law and intent on striking it down. A decision is expected by the summer and would likely affect more than a dozen states that accept postmarked ballots after Election Day.

While some of the justices seemed persuaded that Election Day should be viewed as a single and final day in an election cycle, Chief Justice John Roberts, a George W. Bush appointee, and Justice Elena Kagan, an Obama appointee, raised concerns that if the interpretation of Election Day was strictly upheld by the court, then early voting might also be affected.

“If ‘day’ includes a period after a particular day of the election, does it include a particular day before the day of the election?” Roberts asked Mississippi Solicitor General Scott Stewart. “Or does your logic require a different consideration?”

Former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement, a prominent conservative lawyer, argued in support of the RNC, saying the original meaning of an election involved the “combined action” of offering up a vote and an election official receiving the vote.

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“All agree that elections for federal office have to end on the day of the election specified by Congress, and all agree that you can’t have an election unless you receive ballots, and there must be some deadline for ballot receipt,” Clement said. “Nonetheless, Mississippi insists that ballots can trickle in days or even weeks after Election Day. That position is wrong as a matter of text, precedent, history and common sense.”

The case comes as President Donald Trump has made election security a top focus. The RNC and several election integrity groups that weighed in on the case argued that the Supreme Court should ban late-arriving ballots, except for military ballots, because they sow distrust in elections.

“Today’s oral arguments in Watson v. RNC clearly show where the Supreme Court should come down: state laws that count ballots received after Election Day violate federal law, expose elections to delays, invite fraud, and fuel public doubt in the democratic process,” Jason Snead, executive director of the Honest Elections Project, said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital.

At least 14 states and Washington, D.C., currently count ballots received after Election Day if postmarked on time.

A ruling upholding the 5th Circuit could invalidate those policies and require ballots to be in election officials’ hands by the close of polls, a decision that is expected to affect the 2026 midterms. Critics say election officials could still be counting mail ballots in some states even if the ballots are all received by Election Day because of states’ individual tabulating processes.

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Military and overseas ballots, which are governed by the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, would likely remain unaffected.

Since the 2024 midterm elections, four Republican-controlled states, Kansas, Ohio, Utah and North Dakota, have moved to require receipt by Election Day.

Fox News’ Bill Mears contributed to this report.

FIRST ON FOX: A watchdog is urging the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to investigate Nebraska Senate hopeful Dan Osborn, alleging he is improperly steering campaign funds for personal use to nearly half-a-dozen of his relatives, including around a quarter-million dollars to his wife alone, through his principal campaign committee and a web of political action committees.

Last month, Fox News Digital reported on Osborn’s spending that has come under scrutiny, showing that north of $370,000 had been disbursed to his wife, daughter, sister-in-law, and to himself through his campaign and a web of political action committees. 

A complaint filed with the FEC Monday by conservative watchdog Americans for Public Trust, is now calling on the FEC to investigate Osborn’s spending, and lays out even more relatives receiving money from Osborn’s campaign plus another consulting firm his wife works at that has been receiving funds. In total, the complaint says, Osborn, his wife Megan, daughter Georgia, sister-in-law Jodi, second sister-in-law Bridget and brother-in-law James have received $434,734.42.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Osborn campaign with questions about the payments, but many of them went unanswered. However, a campaign spokesperson did tell Fox News Digital that the campaign “is fully compliant with all FEC rules.”

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“We haven’t received any formal complaints, but what you describe are baseless, nuisance allegations designed to slow Dan’s momentum as he’s tied with Pete Ricketts in four straight polls,” the spokesperson said. 

While paying family members with campaign money is not necessarily a violation of campaign finance law, concerns have been raised about whether Osborn’s payments to his family members have followed the campaign finance laws that must still be adhered to, such as that the pay must be at fair-market value, it must be strictly for campaign services, must be transparently reported and must not be used for personal expenses, meaning expenses incurred irregardless of the ongoing campaign, like housing costs. 

Entities not controlled and operated by candidates can deal in what is called “soft money,” or money that does not need to comply with federal limits. However, that money cannot then be controlled by the candidate to help him directly with his campaign. Money from entities controlled by candidates, often referred to as “hard money,” must follow the FEC’s limits and other rules.

Americans for Public Trust is accusing Osborn of using an end-around to funnel money to his relatives, including from a now-defunct campaign. They cite the fact that Osborn’s Working Class Heroes Fund (WCHF), which he launched in 2024, has a “join the movement” button that routes users to a form so they can be contacted by a different PAC called the League of Labor Voters. They also cite the involvement of Osborn’s custodian of records for his failed 2024 Senate campaign, Brandon Philipczyk, who was also listed as such in the Statement of Organization for Osborn’s WCHF and LLV until just a few days ago.

Americans for Public Trust is alleging that these are not truly outside groups — they are effectively part of Osborn’s operation — and therefore shouldn’t be raising or spending money in ways that function like an end-around to bypass federal limitations.

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“Despite being established, financed, maintained, or controlled by federal candidate Dan Osborn and his agents, WCHF and LLV have solicited, received, directed, transferred, or spent funds that do not comply with FECA’s contribution limitations, source prohibitions, and reporting requirements, including receiving contributions from individuals in excess of $5,000 and receiving funds from prohibited sources,” the complaint letter to the FEC states.

Osborn’s wife, Megan, who reportedly was a former bar manager, has raked in around a quarter-million dollars from Osborn’s campaign and a web of political action committees tied to him. In some cases, Megan has gotten money directly from her husband’s campaign and in other cases she has received it from two firms, one called Independent Campaigns LLC, which Megan has a one-third ownership stake in, and Dark Forest LLC, which official candidate disclosures show Megan gets compensation from. 

Just two days after Independent Campaigns was set up, Osborn’s WCHF made its first $50,000 payment to the firm, according to local Nebraska news outlet the Lincoln-Journal Star. Thus far, per the FEC complaint, Independent Campaigns has received nearly $200,000 from Osborn and WCHF and another PAC called the League of Labor Voters (LLV), which Americans for Public Trust also alleges is controlled by Osborn.

In total, per the Americans for Public Trust complaint letter, Osborn’s wife has been able to rake in close to $300,00 for herself for things like “strategy consulting” and work reimbursements. 

Osborn’s daughter Georgia, a part-time dancer who Osborn says still needs help paying her bills, was given $4,200 between when Osborn’s first 2024 campaign lost, and before launching his 2026 bid. The money was for “assistant services” from the then-dormant campaign. 

Osborn’s sister-in-law, Jodi, received $1,400 for “treasurer services” from WCHF at the end of 2025, according to campaign disclosures which also show that she is listed as WCHF’s treasurer.

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Meanwhile, the group also points to a $2,500 payment to Osborn’s brother-in-law, who served as treasurer of Osborn’s 2024 committee, as part of what it calls a broader pattern of family-linked payments that should be scrutinized for bona fide services and fair-market rates.

“Perhaps the Osborn family is teeming with previously undiscovered, dynastic political talent, akin to the Kennedys or Roosevelts,” the Americans for Public Trust letter to the FEC says. “Or perhaps Mr. Osborn has realized his ability to funnel large amounts of unchecked campaign cash to his own family.”

Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of Americans for Public Trust, added that Osborn “has become too comfortable blurring the lines between family, fortune, and campaign finance law.”

“Osborn has engaged in various tactics — including utilizing a defunct campaign account — to enrich members of both his immediate and extended family,” Sutherland continued. “In addition to lining the pockets of his close relatives, who appear to lack any notable professional campaign experience—Osborn is racking up federal campaign finance violations by orchestrating a scheme that seemingly finds him illegally running and controlling multiple federal PACs.”  

Besides questions about how Osborn is paying himself and his loved ones, critics of the candidate have also balked at his decision to run as an Independent. Osborn has indicated he has no plans to caucus with either major party if elected and says on his website that, as an Independent, he is “uniquely positioned” to get things done in Congress. Meanwhile, speaking at a town hall, Osborn reportedly told Nebraskans that if his bid as an Independent didn’t work out, “there’s only one party I would caucus with.”

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When pressed on which political party he was speaking of, Osborn replied: “Not (Republican) Pete Ricketts’s party,” according to the audio reviewed by Nebraska news organization The Plains Sentinel. However, Osborn’s decision to cash in on national Democratic Party support, including utilizing the party’s main fundraising platform, ActBlue, has led to questions about how independent he really will be.

In December, Osborn was slammed for hiring an anti-cop staffer seen at an anti-police event featuring severed pig heads, and the agency creating Osborn’s ads, Fight Agency, was also behind ads for the Zohran Mamdani, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, and other Democrats. 

One of the firm’s leaders said they were struck by Osborn’s “over performance” in 2024, leading him to surmise “that Democrats need to run a lot of different kinds of campaigns.”

The consulting firm co-owned by Osborn’s wife, Independent Campaigns, has also worked with Democrat candidates. FEC filings show Nathan Sage, a Democrat running for Senate in Iowa, has paid thousands to Osborn’s wife’s consulting firm.

Former CBS News reporter Scott MacFarlane announced on Monday that he is joining the far-left media company MeidasTouch.

MeidasTouch, which was initially formed as a political action committee designed to attack President Donald Trump in 2020, has since piled up over 6 million subscribers on YouTube. Earlier this month, MacFarlane bolted CBS News amid editor-in-chief Bari Weiss’ reshaping of the organization. 

“I have a new platform for my independent, unfiltered reporting. Effective immediately, I am chief Washington correspondent for the MeidasTouch network,” MacFarlane said when announcing the move on social media. 

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MacFarlane said he would anchor a daily program starting in the coming weeks. 

“MeidasTouch and I share the same north star of communicating. When you have news to break, or something important to explain, just get to it,” MacFarlane said as he snapped his fingers at viewers. 

“Straight to the point, as soon as you open the camera and open the microphone, simply, declaratively, conversationally, explain what’s happening. Explain what it means,” he added. “Put aside the production theater, and the useless bells and whistles. Just get to it.” 

NPR referred to MeidasTouch as “unapologetically partisan” and an “amped-up MSNBC” in a report last year. MSNBC, the progressive cable news network, changed its name to MS NOW late last year.

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MacFarlane then said he’s not an editorialist or a politician, but rather an “enterprise reporter.” 

MacFarlane, who provided extensive Jan. 6 reporting for the network in recent years, said we’re living in a moment of “unique political toxicity and unique political danger.”

“The MeidasTouch and I have long shared this same philosophy; you don’t platform lies. You don’t platform conspiracy theories, and you don’t allow for the whitewashing of history,” MacFarlane said. 

Many have speculated that MacFarlane simply wasn’t a good fit at CBS under Weiss, who is seeking to tone down the partisan coverage at the network. His move conjures up memories of former CBS News reporter Kate Smith, who left the network to take a news director position at Planned Parenthood in 2022.

Many conservatives took to social media to offer thoughts on MacFarlane’s move. 

Journalist Mike Cote wrote, “This is why nobody on the political right buys the ‘legacy media is unbiased’ claptrap. When a longtime CBS reporter gets a new job with a Resistance slop clickbait farm in less than 2 weeks, the truth is pretty damn obvious.”

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White House director of communications Steven Chueng said the move shows how “biased news media has become.”

“Every reporter who ‘leaves’ (more like fired from) their outlet always comes out as a deranged liberal. Every. Single. Damn. Time,” Chueng wrote. 

Titles of recent videos posted to the MeidasTouch YouTube page include “Trump PANICS and LIES He MADE DEAL TO END WAR,” “Trump HIT BY KARMA in WAR as TABLES ARE TURNED,” “Trump’s HEALTH CRASHES in WAR as 25th AMENDMENT DEMANDED” and “Trump PANICS as Troops TURN AGAINST HIM in WAR.”

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Forensic team investigating at the scene. – Photo: Amar Ujala

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